Hostage Deals and Da'as Torah

Plus a new pay for pray scheme, and more

This week's Torah class features:

• A response to dubious rabbinic arguments supporting the release of hordes of terrorists in exchange for hostages

• The actual meaning of the term "Da'as Torah" (it changes everything)

• Fundamental Torah sources about how Jewish law is decided, the ability of rabbis to impose their will on the public, and the obligation for an individual who knows better to ignore even the Sanhedrin if they distort the Torah

As always, the important things they don't teach in yeshiva and seminary...

The recording is available here. Please share this timely, fundamental Torah.

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The good-for-nothings in the Knesset just passed a law that those who deny the October 7 massacre can face 5 years in prison. Those who actually committed the massacre were triumphantly freed after only a few months. Draw your own conclusions.

Meanwhile, you can deny God's existence, the existence of only two genders, and other vital aspects of reality, without facing any jail time.

I'm not a fan of the creeps who deny that Jews were massacred on October 7 or in the Holocaust, but this has nothing to do with protecting reality or protecting Jews. If they really wanted to protect Jews, October 7 never would have happened in the first place.

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A new pay for pray scheme

Way back in 2008 I wrote a two-part article for The Jewish Star, a weekly newspaper in the Five Towns, in which I leveled sharp criticism at Kupat Ha'ir, one of the largest tzedaka organizations in the "haredi" world, for insidious fundraising tactics. It’s available here and here, and I copied it at end of this post.

This was when "pay to pray" schemes, as I call them, were becoming very big and increasingly common in the religious Jewish world. Organizations like Kupat Ha'ir were engaging in far-reaching, expensive marketing campaigns in which they made bombastic claims about miraculous salvations for those who donated money to them.

Since most people have short memories, and their minds are fogged up with nonsense and propaganda, they don't remember that this is not the relationship our parents and grandparents had with tzedaka and those who collected it. This sort of thing isn't normal. It's predatory, misleading, and even idolatrous in spirit, if not in practice.

The fact that "all the gedolim" supposedly endorse all the above (surely for the "greater good") doesn't change this one iota.

Today we are bombarded with pay for pray schemes (typically a certain number of "Torah scholars" praying on your behalf at a cemetery), organizations promising miraculous salvations (or at least taking credit for them), rabbis promising to pray on your behalf for a minimum donation, and even young shnorrers just starting out in the business promising to pray for you under the Chuppa for a minimum donation.

Long before I realized what was going on with the Erev Rav and Amalek, I understood that the Torah was being hijacked, but even then most people reacted with hostility, and those who agreed were too feeble to add their voice to mine.

Now look where we are.

Just recently I came across a clever new twist on the money for miracles tactic:

An advertisement for a certain kollel now declares a "Revolution, the likes of which has never existed! First be saved, after that pay to strengthen the minyan...Are you yearning for an appropriate zivug?! Waiting for children who live?! Do you feel that someone is upset with you [and thereby holding back your salvation]?!"

If so, there will be a segula-dik gathering at a couple of holy graves, the likes of which are not found anywhere in Chazal, nor recommended by them as the answer to our personal and collective problems, but this is clearly the answer you've been waiting for.

Best of all, unlike the other pay for pray schemes, they don't insist that you pay up front, but only AFTER you receive salvation.

This is brilliant. After all, one has nothing to lose by submitting his name. And SOME of these people will surely get married, or have children, or otherwise be blessed with whatever it is they are lacking. These people will naturally attribute their good fortune to whatever spiritual ritual this kollel supposedly performed, and will be delighted to make a generous contribution. Those who are less fortunate won't feel taken, and may eventually become paying customers when their fortunes turn for the better.

Kind of the like doing a rain dance until it rains, then claiming the dance caused the rain.

I wonder if a pay for pray scheme will ever have the guts to offer a money-back guarantee. But this tactic obviates the problem. Just pray for everyone up front, take credit for those who eventually receive good fortune, and cash in.

Here is the two-part article from 2008:

Miracles, Marketing and Madness: Part 1

June 27, 2008, The Jewish Star

Warning: if you are highly sensitive and parrot the notion that certain rabbis are beyond reproach or even mere question simply because some people say so, then please do NOT read any further.

It is not my usual practice to criticize organizations (and certainly not individuals) by name. However, organizations by their very nature must be open to public criticism, and when their practices are cause for serious concern it behooves us to raise and address these concerns so that we can make informed decisions.

I have long been rubbed the wrong way by the way Kupat Ha’ir, a tzedaka organization in Israel, promotes itself. For one thing, all those glossy newspaper inserts and large ads they continuously produce aren’t cheap. I wonder who’s paying for that. If it’s money from regular donations (as opposed to donations specifically earmarked for promoting the organization) then many donors would think twice if they knew that a sizable percentage of their donation wasn’t going to feed orphans, but merely to rope in the next round of donors — whose money, in turn, would be doing more of the same.

Even more troubling is the marketing devices this organization employs to sway people to send in money. They go beyond the usual vapid yet melodramatic endorsements that normally accompany these types of advertisements. Like sports drinks showing celebrity athletes drinking the product, they feature celebrity rabbis donating money to them. What’s next, pizza stores demonstrating the ultimate “standards” in kashrus by showing celebrity rabbis taking a bite?

Today anyone who has any ideas about producing a product for sale in the Jewish community knows that there is nothing more important than garnering a murderer’s row of rabbinic endorsements, even if all he’s selling is a pot holder. When rabbis are reduced to mere marketing devices, then something is wrong with the rabbinic establishment and our relationship to it. Such shenanigans lend credence to the cynicism about Torah and its scholars being for sale, and only perpetuate a society of followers that live in blissful, willful ignorance.

Considering the madness that surrounds us, however, these tactics alone are worthy of only mild scorn and irritation. Unfortunately, it gets much worse.

If you’ve ever troubled yourself to read their advertising, you know that their strongest push to donate is the miracle card. You know, “JM” from Bnei Brak donated $40 and her tumor disappeared, that sort of thing. I lose all respect for them right there. This is nothing but an attempt to prey on people’s fear, ignorance, and hope, to tap into the most primitive aspects of the human psyche.

Of course we are supposed to believe that all these predictable, wondrous stories are 100% true. We are also supposed to be motivated to give tzedaka nowadays because we need money, a shidduch, or a cure (which is acceptable but certainly not laudatory or ideal). But here’s the thing: the clear implication is that we are supposed to give tzedaka to THEM, because they have the miracle backing. If you give your tzedaka elsewhere then all bets are off.

It’s little different than those advertisements for wonder drugs, or sports drinks. Then again, those advertisements come with disclaimers like “results may vary”. No such disclaimer here. They’re careful not to outright promise that you’ll get what you wish for, but they take full credit for so-called miracles that supposedly happen to donors. (Like saint-seeking Christians, they are also quite liberal in their definition of “miracles” as referring to most any happy occurrence.)

In so doing they have created the perfect situation for themselves (not dissimilar to what shadchanim do, by the way). If things work out well, it’s because of us. If they don’t work out well, it must be your fault. If you donate a few bucks and your three spinster daughters get engaged within 4 days, it’s because you donated a few bucks. If you donate a few bucks and life goes on as before, well, tough luck. Maybe you should have donated more, or davened harder, or performed some other sorcery in conjunction to manipulate the spiritual forces in your favor. Give us the credit for “success”, but keep the blame for “failure” all to yourself.

Best of all, this marketing gimmick is impossible to disprove. After all, can you know for certain that supposed miracles are fabricated, or, if true, are really unrelated to the giving of a donation? Of course not. So you might as well give them money just to cover your bases, because it MIGHT be true. Even if you don’t see immediate results, you MIGHT have helped bring your salvation closer, or, at the very least, prevented things from getting worse. This can’t be disproved. And when enough people give and good things happen to some of them, the marketing train only picks up more steam. You can’t prove it’s not true, and it just MIGHT have something to it, so why not give? You might be the next one to hit the jackpot. Plus, look at those pictures of nice old rabbis.

In all fairness, Kupat Ha’ir is far from the most serious offender when it comes to dubious promises of salvation, but they are certainly the most prominent. Were it for this alone I would not have singled them out for this article. However, they recently put out a publication that is so full of downright frightening social implications, so full of messages that contradict Torah values and common sense itself that I must question the very credibility of this organization and the leaders who are associated with it, however prominent and popular they may be.

I will address this in detail in Part 2.

Miracles, Marketing and Madness: Part 2

July 4, 2008, The Jewish Star

Kupat Ha'ir's latest marketing ploy is an insert called Kos Yeshuos, a story supplement. Printing thousands of copies of this artistic publication couldn't be cheap, but in business you have to invest money to make money.

I confess that I read the first story, summarized below, with the expectation of being outraged by it, but you can judge the merit of my embedded remarks. Pay attention not just to the predictable “miracle,” but to the insidious social and religious ideals that are just taken for granted as being right and true:

Meir was very quiet amidst the celebration of the engagement of a fellow bochur. Someone noticed and ribbed him: “Whatsamatter, you wanna be the guy in the middle?” [What middos!]

Meir was crestfallen but quickly hid his feelings because he couldn't afford to let others see how jealous he was. [One can never show himself to be dissatisfied or unhappy in the kollel world or he's finished right then and there.]

Another shidduch, so close to the finish line, had hit a dead end that evening. [Shidduchim are a race, and the finish line is the wedding. Can we get ONE mental health professional to endorse this? Also, what is “close to the finish line,” a second date?]

“I'm afraid I'm going to be the last bachur left,” Meir said to his good friend Eisik later. [I can't think of a better motivation to pursue marriage, can you?]

Eisik had come upstairs from the study hall at 2:00 a.m., the way he did every night. [Just so the rest of us who need more than four hours of sleep can feel small.] He prepared for bed, not wasting a minute, but in the meantime he could provide a listening ear and a warm and caring heart for a friend who needed both so badly. [Warmth and caring that a dear friend needs badly can only be provided when one is multitasking, so as not to take away one minute from Torah learning.]

“You should've been the first to get engaged, Meir. There aren't many bachurim as sought after as you.” [Such inspiring words. Don't worry, Meir, you're a commodity, too.]

Meir was not consoled. “I thought so too. But you see what's been happening. Such things leak out, you know? Who's going to want to get engaged to a bachur others have rejected?” [This statement alone should have us recoil from what the kollel-centric lifestyle has morphed into. If someone has been turned down by others as a marriage prospect, then it is assumed there is something wrong with the person, and his value on the market drops considerably. Surely this is what Hashem had in mind all along.]

“No one has rejected you,” Eisik protests. “One shidduch was blown for financial reasons.” [I thought the vaunted shidduch system was supposed to transcend materialistic considerations. Also, does Meir plan on working?]

Meir was still not consoled.

Eisik now had a problem on his hands. The three minutes he dedicated to preparing for bed each night had passed and unless he hurried to close his eyes now, tomorrow's learning would suffer. [I call it “madness” for a reason, folks. Oh, and so much for providing a listening ear and a warm caring heart for a friend. My three minutes of distracted listening as I fret about staying precisely on schedule for morning seder are up, buddy. Time to close my eyes.]

Three years passed. Eisik was now the father of two children despite being younger than Meir by nearly a full year. Meir was the last one left. [No word about being lonely, craving a relationship, having what to contribute to a relationship, etc. No, he's just behind his peers in the race.]

Someone four years younger who just got engaged [a shanda!] advised Meir to pray by a certain grave, since it worked for him and his sister. He was going there the following day to give thanks to Hashem, just as the segulah requires: you go there once to ask and once to say thank you.” [Sefer Segulos K'hilchasa?]

When Meir heard about these engagements, his heart broke for the umpteenth time. [Jealousy at the good fortune of others so suits a yeshiva bochur.]

The segula didn't work. [No explanation given. As I said, segulos get credit when good things happen, but no blame when they don't. Sweet deal.]

More segulos, more failure.

“When you're a twenty-five-year-old single bachur, you can't be too picky about shidduch suggestions or segulos,” he often said, making peace with the “label” people had begun sticking him with. [Indeed. Loss of leverage in the commodity-driven shidduch world is the worst of nightmares. And don't mistake it: it's all about leverage.]

Meir realized that he was past the age and needed something beyond nature to have any hope of getting married. He needed to contribute a sum beyond his means to Kupat Ha'ir. He decided on $2,000 because that's what worked for a woman he read about, and began to solicit contributions.

Even before Meir had reached his goal of $2,000, Uncle Baruch phoned his parents and suggested a shidduch. [Why couldn’t Uncle Baruch phone Meir directly? Of course, we know such things just aren’t done. Silly me.]

They got married, of course. A miracle! Whoever contributes to Kupat Ha’ir beyond derech hateva merits a yeshua that is beyond derech hateva. [Can I get a money-back guarantee?]

This insidious story booklet concludes with the words of a noted rabbi:

“Certainly, contributing tzedaka to a worthy cause such as Kupat Ha’ir is a proper form of hishtadlus, which effects many yeshuos to both individuals and the general public. We see many such examples in Tanach and Chazal. [That’s not the sort of hishtadlus I normally find in Tanach and Chazal.] Of course, the intention is not that whoever gives tzedaka will certainly be helped; sometimes, there are certain other factors that hold back a yeshua. [In other words, give us the credit if things work out, but if they don’t, it’s all on you.] The intention of the Tanach and Chazal is that the merit of giving tzedakah to the poor is very powerful indeed, and that this is a suitable and proper form of hishtadlus.”

Very nice, rabbi, thanks.

In fine print at the bottom of the page, like a political commercial: “Hagaon Harav Ploni, shlita, saw and approved this massage [sic].”

Amazing! A slick marketing pro wrote his dubious inspirational Torah message for him and he just signed off on it.

End the madness. Stand up to it. Call it what it is. Then run away from it. If you can’t save anyone else, save yourself.